r/ExploreFiction • u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! • Apr 22 '26
Brass and Banners: Frontier Fighting and Confronting the Confederates
On the western edge of the Wyoming Territory, in the year 1899, sits a fort that is on the frontlines of a war they don't want to wage. Fort Mavani' as the native Shoshone call it, sits to the eastern side of the Teton River. On the other side used to be Shoshone land until the Neo-Confederates somehow seized it. Airships have been shot down by a mysterious weapon, and the trains heading to and from Seattle have been raided. Tensions are high, and the mechanized infantry is still on it's way from Missouri.
You have wandered into the town near the fort, a Shoshone settlement called Sohovi one of the few they have as permanent settlements in their territory. It's usually a thriving town, but since the trains stopped coming through the town is struggling. You are stopped by a mechanical soldier with a feather in his cap. He ticks and steam occasionally shoots out of a pipe leading out from his head. He speaks from a metal grill in his mouth.
"Halt! Identify yourself!" The native soldier next to the mechanical man speaks up, "Don't be so harsh Dembi." The native soldier has adorned his uniform with native patterns. His long black hair has been braided, "I am Private Tyhee. What's your name?"
(Steampunk with little to no magic.)
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u/Tales_of_the_Rose Apr 29 '26
(Hey is this still open? I would be interest in a rp with my fantasy early dieselpunk setting.)
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Apr 29 '26
(Sure, hop on in.)
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u/Tales_of_the_Rose Apr 29 '26
Before them stands a man with straight posture, stern look and pointy mustache Hes dressed in a long dress like black red double breasted uniform with gold details, boots and a Pickelhaube.
The belt wrapped around his waist has a holstered pistol and saber.
He raises his hands, which are dressed in white gloves.
"I am Admiral Wantaub, Captain of the Sügovel. There is no need for hostilities." He assures before raising an eyebrow while shooting a glance at the mechanical soldier
"What colony is this? I have yet to see plastics this.... sophisticated. Especially in a place such as this."
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Apr 29 '26
Tyhee looks confused and grips his rifle a little tighter, "Admiral? Plastics? You're in Shoshone territory, this is the town of Sohovi. You're very far from any ocean sir... and you defitnitely aren't a US Navy man."
Dembi looked between them, "Sir... should I fire on him? He may be a Neo Confederate."
"He hasn't called me Indian... or worse so I doubt it. Sir, where are you coming from, and where is your destination?"
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u/Tales_of_the_Rose Apr 29 '26
"A man not recognising my uniform? Shoshone? Us navy? Neo confederates? And such a brutish suggestion, has your subordinate no virtue?!?!" He exclaimed, offended
"I hail from Kaiserreich Alprachen! how can you not know this? My Zeppelin was shot down not to far from here, i was under the impression that this is Alprachen territory so i came seeking assistance."
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Apr 30 '26
"Never heard of such a place, but if you were shot down then we'll see if we can't send out a party to help you search through the debris. I didn't hear about any foreign airships coming to help. And don't mind Dembi, he's a lot of hot air and won't fire unless I order it."
Dembi is holding a box as he gives a toot from a steam whistle on the side of his head.
Tyhee nods to the box, "Per orders of the General at the fort and the Sheriff here in town, until we can verify who you are, all weapons in the box. You can pick them up from Sheriff Yokottsi when we know exactly who you are."
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u/Tales_of_the_Rose Apr 30 '26
The admiral takes a moment to think about Tyhees order before with hesitation undoing the sheath and holster off his belt and holster and hending them to Dembi.
"So be it. It it improper but for the sake of my crew I'll comply."
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Apr 30 '26
Dembi takes them and starts heading into town. Tyhee motions for the Admiral to walk with him. This is much like any old west town, large wooden buildings, and hard packed dirt roads. They reach the town square where there is a large saloon and hotel named the Prarie Rose Saloon, The First Bank of Shoshone, and the town hall which is the only brick building and has a clock tower. It's about noon. The town looks like it should have more people bustling about but it's eerily quiet. The general store is a block away next to the rail station. Both have only a couple of people milling about.
Tyhee and Dembi walk with the Admiral into the sheriff's office next to Town Hall. An older native man with long white hair is leaning back in his chair smoking a cigarette. He looks at Tyhee, then motions to Dembi to put the box in storage. He then looks to the admiral, "Eh, you're far from home, or you're in a costume. Who is this?"
"Claims to be an Admiral with some foreign government. Says his airship was shot down."
The sheriff reaches into his desk, "Well, if it was we can see where you landed and help recover what we can." He pulled out a large map of the area. It is several hundred square miles. One quarter of it is just marked with "Neo-Confederates". Tyhee goes over to a crank telephone on the wall and is talking to someone.
The sheriff looks over the Admiral, "I'm sheriff Yokottsi by the way."
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u/Tales_of_the_Rose Apr 30 '26
The admiral is most perplexed by this almost deserted frontier town. He'd expect people hard at work to establish civilization in such a place. The weather is also not exactly to his taste and he is forced to adjust and vent the thick wool collar of his uniform in a weak attempt to cool down.
The admiral is also not particularly impressed by the sheriff relaxing in his chair.
He lifts the hem of his battledress and bows before introducing himself in straight posture
"Admiral Wantaub of Hochburg, betrothed of the baroness zerrman, captain of the Sügovel and veteran of Albrechts war!"
He scans the map points to a location at the edge of neo-confederate territory.
"There. A rough landing but the Apsis kept us stable. If you would allow the question, who is this confederation? By everything I've seen i would conclude that this is a warzone?"
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Apr 30 '26
The sheriff nodded, "It is a war zone. Likely the confederates shot you down. They've been shooting down every airship that isn't coming to help them. These guys are the last vestiges of the racist and moronic Confederate States of America. They tried to fight a war to keep enslaving people. They got their ass handed to them so they migrated out here. Set up a settlement in the middle of the Idaho dunes and have been slowly accumulating weapons. They call men like me and Tyhee savages but the confederates are bloodthirsty and ignorant, a lethal combination. General Jefferson has been trying to get US Army reinforcements out here to clear them out, but with the war in the Caribbean and now apparently Europe getting rowdy they're spread thin." He looked to Tyhee after getting off the phone with the general, "Well?"
"General had no knowledge of anyone coming this way, but he said the telegraph lines are down, trains can't come through and airships have been told to turn around if they even get close. So Admiral sir, General Jefferson has asked for me to bring you to him."
"He came down in the no fly zone."
"Shit, ah, that's not good. We can't send anyone out today. And Governor Roosevelt is coming in tomorrow."
"Roosevelt? From New York? Why?"
"General says he's bringing the New York National Guard."
"Well... I better go tell Madam Zhu that we're getting a lot of company coming in. Admiral, good to meet you."
Outside they hear gunshots and the chugging of engines followed by yelling. Tyhee gets his rifle and shouts to Dembi, "Dembi, form up, follow." The steam powered man runs out with Tyhee. Sheriff Yokottsi goes and grabs the Admiral's weapons and hands them back to him, "Confederate raiders. Third time this month. You good in a fight?"
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u/The-Bigger-Fish Apr 29 '26
(Trying to figure out which one of my characters would work best here….)
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Apr 29 '26
(It's okay if you don't have one. I'll have a new Heroes League one here in about a month.)
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u/The-Bigger-Fish Apr 29 '26
(I realized the closest I have to a low magic deisel punk character is Cygnus and even then he's a high tech robot stuck in a final fantasy-esque clockpunk world. Whoops...)
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 07 '26
The strange woman standing in front of them tilts her head a little before nodding and giving the two of them a polite bow, arms held flat to her sides. When she rights herself they'd likely notice how she isn't looking directly at them. In their direction, yes, but she doesn't seem to focus on either one of them and simply stares at the space between them. Although the fact that her pale red eyes seem to be glazed over with a white, milky fog gives a little hint as to why
"My name is Mariko Orenai, Daughter of Kazuto Orenai and Maartje van Dijk. Ninja by training, Monster Hunter by trade. If I may ask, where have I found myself? I woke up nearby not long ago with no memory of how I got here, and have yet to find a clue as to where I have ended up."
While she does speak English quite flawlessly, her accent is quite obvious still, a distinct mix of Japanese and Dutch
(Hello, here too!)
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Jul 08 '26
Tyhee held his rifle a little lower, "You another one of them that just suddenly appeared? Aye yah, the General is going to want to talk to you. Are you from... chk... where is Zhu from?"
The mechanical man named Dembi spoke up, "Madame Zhu is from China, specifically Hong Kong."
He nodded, "Are you from China?"
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 08 '26
The woman manages to look decidedly unimpressed even with most of her face covered and her eyes blankly staring into nothing. SHe gestures at her clothing while shaking her head in a mildly disappointing manner
"No I am not from China. I am Japanese, from Japan. Although strictly speaking my father is from Japan, I myself am from the Netherlands."
"As for this General you mentioned, if he wishes to speak to me then I will not object to doing so if it means figuring out where I am."
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Jul 10 '26
He escorted her through this old west town. Then on the other side of the town was a wooden fort built on the banks of a river and next to a blasted out railroad bridge. Tyhee and Dembi took her to the wooden building in the middle of the fort. Inside a large older black man in a uniform was going over some maps with a latina woman in uniform and a man in a long coat, bowler hat, and round glasses. They all looked up as he entered with the woman.
"Uh... she said she woke up here."
The man in the bowler hat whispered to the black man. He motioned to Tyhee, "Leave her here. Good work soldier. Back to your post."
He saluted and left them. The black man introduced them, "I'm General Jefferson, this is my sergeant Maria Gonzalez, and our intelligence officer Mr. Brownstone."
Mr. Brownstone looked her up and down before speaking in Japanese, "What is the last thing you recall and from which prefecture are you from?"
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 11 '26
As she is escorted through the town, she continues to mostly stare ahead of her, occasionally moving her head to turn an ear towards a nearby sound, but not actually looking at anything. HEr supernaturally strong hearing and smell doing the heavy lifting to compensate for her lack of sight.
Once she's in the room with the General she gives the gathered people a polite bow (Albeit one shallower and shorter than Japanese custom would ordinarily expect in this circumstance)
"Greetings. My name is Mariko Orenai, Daughter of Kazuto Orenai and Maartje van Dijk. Ninja by training, Monster Hunter by trade."
SHe turns towards Mr. Brownstone, "looking" at a point roughly in the same direction as his face. SHe responds in Japanese, with a light but noticable Dutch accent
{"THe last thing I recall is slaying a mutant Oni that was attempting to exploit a natural portal to amass more power. As for your second question, I am from the province of South Holland."}
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Jul 13 '26
He switched to Dutch, "As far as I'm aware no such thing exists. We shall discuss this soon."
General Jefferson looked to Brownstone, "Are you two done?"
"For now sir. She's not from here, like the others."
"Well... that's for sure. But you said you were a monster hunter, what if that monster is a human, care to hunt them?"
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 13 '26
(Should point out that the provinces of North and South Holland have existed as separate provinces since 1840, 59 years before this rp takes place)
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Jul 13 '26
(So he was mostly implying that oni don't exist but also those provinces are north and south Batavia in this world. Also fun fact because of the steam punk technology of this world the Markerwaard was constructed as were the other polders.)
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 13 '26
(Aaah fair fair. Low/no magic alt-history, forgot about that.)
(Will reply with that in mind when I have time, then!)
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 13 '26
She too switches to Dutch, her tone mildly sarcastic
<"Which of those three? The Oni, the portal, or the province? I suppose that is something to discuss.">
She turns to the general, again not actually looking at him directly
"Thst depends on what kind of monster they are. If it's just a criminal then that's usually left to law enforcement. Although I do have the training necessary to fight baseline humans as well, if needed. Why do you ask?"
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Jul 14 '26
General Jefferson nodded, "We have an issue with people calling themselves Neo-Confederates. They built a weapon that's capable of shooting airships out of the sky. But the worst part is they are also enslaving people... the same they used to do with my family. We are looking for people to infiltrate their camp and either take out their leadership or destroy the weapon."
Mr. Brownstone spoke up, "Or both if you have the time."
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u/Thomas_Dimensor Jul 14 '26
Mariko raises her eyebrows at that, but doesn't comment until he is finished talking. She thinks for a moment before nodding, humming in both understanding and agreement
"I see. THat does sound like the kind of human monsters I should have no issues dispatching of. Not usually what I do, but it is something I have plenty of training for so I can do it."
"Is there anything to go off of, both for their leadership and the weapon itself? It won't do me any good if I can't find my targets, after all."
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u/Byrdman216 Dragon Man! Jul 15 '26
They spread out some maps of the area. The Confederate camp was large, covering a large area at the base of a mountain. He pointed to some military encampments and buildings, "Steam cycle repair, barracks, slave quarters, and... well back on the plantation we called it the Dark Shed. I believe the Confederates call that their love shack. Then here part way up the mountain is an entrance to an underground facility. The weapon is housed inside as well as the Neo-Confederate higher ups including the 'Emperor' as he calls himself." He pointed to a building marked "Plantation House?".
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u/commandrix Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
The woman in plain brown durable clothing mutters what might be a curse under her breath as she stops the horse pulling her cargo wagon perhaps a little too roughly. She might have had a rough life, as evidenced by a missing nose and some missing teeth. She may regard this as just one more bit of weirdness in whatever she's been going through lately.
"...I knew I should have taken a right instead of a left at South Pass. My name is Martje."